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March 2017

China is a delicate matterChina is becoming as one of the most quoted countries among the political circles due to its rise as an economic, military, and political power in the world. Recent developments regarding China`s expansionist policies in the light of new political course of the United States raise many questions. Teemu Naarajärvi, PhD candidate of East Asian studies at the University of Helsinki, shares his views on the various foreign policy aspects regarding China.

U.S. nuclear weaponry experts have published a report on the ongoing programme to retrofit W76-1/Mk4A warheads of Trident II SLBMs with burst-height compensating super-fuses. The upgrade will significantly improve the missile’s kill ratio as applied to silo-based ICBMs, thus freeing up a considerable portion of the United States’ arsenal for engaging other targets of potential enemies.

From March 27 through April 7, the U.S. Department of Defense will conduct a training exercise in partnership with Tajik security forces. Approximately 150 Americans and 100 Tajik personnel will participate in the exercise conducted by U.S. Central Command, in coordination with U.S. government agencies and the Government of Tajikistan.

The nature, intensity and direction of the US’ relations with friends, foes, partners and the marginalised countries entered a period of unprecedented uncertainty with Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 US presidential election.

The role of leader of Europe’s awkward squad, played with aplomb by the UK for the past 45 years, will be handed to Poland and Hungary at the weekend when European Union leaders meet in Rome to celebrate 60 years of the EU’s existence and map out a new future after Brexit.

On March 14–16, Berkeley hosted Global Cyberspace Cooperation Summit organized by East West Institute and attended by over 150 experts, government and business representatives from a number of countries.

Relations between Serbia and Croatia have not been making progress for some time now, rather they are often in crisis, which is also helped by the sharpening rhetoric, especially during election periods, Serbian and Croatian experts agree. They don’t expect any progress in relations between the two countries of key importance to stability in the Western Balkans until both turn to the future and leave the past behind.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev discussed bilateral relations during Mirziyoyev’s March 22-23 first visit to Kazakhstan. His visit, accorded the highest status of a state one, corresponded with the Nauryz spring holiday.

Moderate political parties' success in the Dutch parliamentary election shows that Europe may be able to withstand rising far-right populism, but it is too early to say that tensions have subsided, Lithuanian political analysts said .

Nikos Kotzias, the foreign minister of Greece since 2015, visited Washington, DC this week to meet with leading Trump administration foreign policy officials, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and National Security Adviser H. R. McMaster.